


In the Embers

by lovelykenobi



Series: Domestic ObiAniDala [2]
Category: Star Wars Episode III: Revenge of the Sith, Star Wars Prequel Trilogy
Genre: Everybody Lives, F/M, M/M, Multi, One Shot, POV Second Person, this is mostly just me teasing out some ideas for a fic i'm thinking about writing
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-06-13
Updated: 2016-06-13
Packaged: 2018-07-14 22:28:24
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 964
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/7193423
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/lovelykenobi/pseuds/lovelykenobi
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>In the Embers, or: a look into the universe where Anakin never meets his fate, and never tempts the Dark Side, but instead finds love between his heart and two others. This is where he finds happiness.<br/>"Your home was small and messy with child’s toys and once-Jedi robes, cluttered with tools and broken droids, but it was perfect. The man you once were always dreamed of such a place. And your neighbours didn’t ask questions, because they were all hiding from their past as well. It was everything you ever wanted. "</p>
            </blockquote>





	In the Embers

**Author's Note:**

> While reading, I'd recommend listening to the song "In the Embers" by Sleeping at Last. I hope you enjoy reading!

You look into the eyes of the one you love. Tears are staining her cheeks, and she is begging you to come home. She doesn’t look at you the way she used to. She is afraid of you.

_Of course she is. You’re a murderer._

You are not the man she fell in love with. You’ve changed.

And now he’s there. He doesn’t believe that you can be saved. He is there to kill you. He is there to take you away from her. He is there to take her away from you.

You loved him. You loved him and when he is standing there, now your enemy, you still love him. Once he was your master and once he was your friend. But now, he is another opponent on a battlefield.

He doesn’t recognize you. He doesn’t recognize the child from Tatooine who could fly anything, fix anything. He doesn’t recognize the Padawan he took under his wing and saw grow up. _He hates you. And you have to kill him._

And on a planet of fire, you see your history burn.

“You turned her against me!”

This is where love dies. On a planet of volcanic rock and ash, this is where all love dies. It doesn’t matter where that love began, or where love went wrong. Because here, it dies. Without mercy.

One day they compare you to Icarus. One day they compare you to the boy who flew too close to the sun, but you are not Icarus. You are the sun. You shone too bright and burned too harsh, and even stars burn out. Stars collapse into nothingness, in gas and fire and light.

Everyone who believed in you watched you fall, watched you collapse.

But imagine if it hadn’t ended this way. Imagine if you hadn’t went wrong.

The younglings who saw you that night saw a hero. You carried them out of the temple and to safety. They lived longer after that, and they always spoke your name with bright eyes.

You were never a killer.

You struck Palpatine down without rage and without fear.

You left Dooku to the mercy of the Jedi.

You buried your mother and left the Tuscans to be beasts.

And you, the chosen one, never made it to Mustafar. You upheld the Jedi order and you saved Padmé’s life. You told Obi-Wan, and he kept her safe. When the Jedi Order cast you away, he was cast away with you. He had been there every day since you were young, and he stayed with you, because there was no world he could imagine without you.

All those nights his lips crashed into yours and yours into Padmé’s and love was found far away from the center of the galaxy. You had taken not just one lover, but two. And you were safe.

You were exiled, but you were in peace. It was without shame. You were safely far away from politics and the Jedi, and the war was fought and won without you. The Separatists were dealt with without your knowing of it, and you never asked again the state of the universe without you.

Your home was small and messy with child’s toys and once-Jedi robes, cluttered with tools and broken droids, but it was perfect. The man you once were always dreamed of such a place. And your neighbours didn’t ask questions, because they were all hiding from their past as well. It was everything you ever wanted.

And every morning you woke up to two children with sleepy eyes and messy hair. You got them ready and fixed them breakfast, then walked them to school. And you were no longer Skywalker the War Hero but you were Skywalker the father with undying devotion. And there was no prophecy or expectations because you were simple. You fixed things and you fixed yourself. You came home to a large bed and a long table and a big couch, and you stopped fearing yourself.

You brushed and braided Padmé’s hair and you kissed Obi-Wan before he went to work. Love had been withheld from you as a slave and as a Jedi, and you were no longer either. No strings attached.

You taught Leia how to twist her hair up into buns on the sides of her head, and you taught Luke how to repair things and how to fight. You taught them control of the Force and you taught them of your history. They grew up in the way you never got to: safe.

They never questioned why they had two fathers and one mother. To them, it was the way everyone lived. They were normal. Their friends were excited to see that they had a bonus parent for all the more fun. They never had to doubt their own love, or hide how they felt.

When Obi-Wan got his first gray hair, you spent the rest of the night reminiscing on the days when you were younger. When Padmé’s forehead began to crease when she was thinking, you kissed her wrinkles until she wasn’t able to think a bad thought of them again. And when your back ached all day from being hunched over a workbench, you fell asleep to a massage.

And you, the chosen one, without consent of the council, fell in love. You were a father and your wife was alive, despite your nightmares and old fears. You, the chosen one, brought balance to the Force without doing a thing. Because they didn’t need you to fight a war.

You, Anakin Skywalker, were the Chosen One. You never burned for love and you never burned for a lie. And because of that, because you were selfish and loving and not belonging to the Jedi: you lived.

**Author's Note:**

> Thank you so much for reading! Comments and kudos are always appreciated, and I'd love to know if you'd read this fic if I actually wrote a whole one.  
> All the love,  
> K.C - lovelykenobi


End file.
